Minister’s sons benefit from dilution of plastic ban

Highlights

The government decision to exempt plastic bottles from the ban announced on March 23

It has worked in favour of Shiv Sena leader and Industries Minister Subhash Desai

The ban would have driven the company, registered in Goregaon (west), out of business

The state government’s decision to dilute its recently announced plastic ban has directly benefited the family of one of its ministers.

The government decision to exempt plastic bottles from the ban announced on March 23 has worked in favour of Shiv Sena leader and Industries Minister Subhash Desai, whose sons run Raigad Foods Pvt Ltd, which manufactures and markets packaged drinking water.

The ban would have driven the company, registered in Goregaon (west), out of business. But the Environment Ministry’s decision to leave polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene terephthalate esters (PETE) bottles with liquid holding capacity of less than 0.5 litres out of the ban gave Raigad Foods a new lease of life.

Bottles of larger capacity were not part of the ban to begin with. The Environment Ministry, interestingly, is headed by another Shiv Sena minister Ramdas Kadam.

Speaking to Mumbai Mirror on Thursday, Desai, who founded Raigad Foods in 1997, rejected suggestions of any conflict of interest and said the decision to exempt plastic bottles from the ban was taken by the Environment Ministry and he had no role to play in it.

Raigad Foods is now run by Desai’s sons Bhushan and Prabodh, who are its directors. Desai himself left the company in 2003. Raigad Foods operates a bottling unit at Mangaon in Raigad district.

Though Desai was part of the state cabinet, which approved the ban, he didn’t disclose his interest in Raigad Foods at any point.

Desai, a long time Sena loyalist, is one of the party’s chief trouble shooters and was nominated to the legislative council after his defeat and made acabinet bnminister.

According to the latest Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings, his sons own 25,000 shares each of the company. Strangely, despite being in business for over a decade and catering to dozens of banquet halls and hotels in the city, Raigad Foods has a negative net worth of Rs 26,84,000. The firm posted a loss of Rs 23,15,264 in its filings for the year 2016-17. The RoC filings state that Raigad Foods’ total turnover is just over Rs 1.06 crore.

A large chunk of the company’s business comes from plastic bottles of less than 500 ml. Raigad Foods supplies 200-300 ml PET bottles to banquets and takes bulk orders from corporates in suburban Mumbai. Desai’s elder son, Prabodh is currently the company’s managing director.

According to the affidavit filed by Desai with the Election Commission for the 2014 assembly elections, he owned 36,499 shares of Raigad Foods worth Rs 36,4990 till September 2014.

Responding to a questionnaire from Mumbai Mirror, Desai said he has not been associated with the company in any capacity for a long time now. He also claimed that Raigad Foods was just one of the many firms affected by the ban. “There are 2000 such bottling units across the state. In Thane, Raigad and Nashik alone, there are 200 bottling units. So Raigad Foods is not the only company that was hit or will benefit."

He reiterated that it would be wrong to assume any conflict of interest. “If there is a ban, naturally my sons business will be hit or affected. They will move to some other business like others. They are not the only ones who will be affected. There is no conflict of interest. I don’t own the company anymore and I am not the environment minister,” Desai said.

Desai’s sons could not be reached for comment. There was no response to an email from Mumbai Mirror to the company’s official email address.